Any theatergoers stepping into The Circle in the Square Theater expecting to witness a run-of-the-mill version of William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet need only gaze upon the production’s pre-show performance to understand that Verona looks a little different these days.

You'd think in a world so divided by war and pain as ours, a story about ill-fated young lovers torn apart by their families' senseless but devastating feud would be treated with more gravitas than director Sam Gold treats it in his somewhat vulgar Broadway adaptation of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet.